There are many things in American life that we love. Faith. Family. Football. In that order. So when a politician threatens to interfere with any one of those, warning lights should flash like a false start in the backfield.
That is precisely what happened this week, as reported by Congressman Chip Roy. Reacting to Lane Kiffin's abandonment of Ole Miss before their bowl game, he suggested that Congress may need to get involved.
His comments came during a congressional hearing on the SCORE Act, which would grant Congress authority over how college athletes earn money through Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) deals.
From his comments, it seems clear that Roy and others believe the Supreme Court made a mistake by allowing NIL in the first place.
To be fair to the congressman, he is not necessarily wrong about the moral issue with Lane Kiffin. There is something undeniably off about coaches preaching loyalty to players while chasing richer contracts and bolting when it benefits them. That hypocrisy deserves fire.
But here is where Chip is dead wrong:
If you want to destroy college football faster than the Pac-12 collapsed, just let Congress run it.
Nothing truly gets better once Washington touches it. Our federal government does not fix things. It bloats them. It mismanages them. It regulates them into mediocrity. Show me one major institution that Congress has "improved" over the last fifty years.
Education? The Department of Education has presided over the most dramatic academic decline in American history.
The DMV? Bring snacks, a camping chair, and maybe a pillow. You will be there a while.
And when was the last time you felt like the workers at the post office really cared about helping you?
And this is the crowd we want regulating college football recruiting, NIL contracts, and postseason commitments?
College sports are not perfect, but they work because they are responsive to pressure from the people who actually care about them: fans, universities, and alums. The entire system depends on market incentives.
Remember when fans wanted a playoff? We got one. Remember when four wasn't enough? Now it is twelve.
Not perfectly, not easily, but eventually it has improved. This is because the sport must answer to the millions who fund and follow it.
Meanwhile, when Congress faces public frustration, they… hold a hearing. Or create a commission. Or blame someone else. What they never do is admit they may be the problem.
Let these same lawmakers, who cannot balance a budget or secure a border, decide conference realignment, NIL oversight, recruiting windows, bowl eligibility, and playoff formats, and fans will not recognize the sport in three years.
Imagine AOC and Elizabeth Warren determining whether the SEC gets eight conference games or nine. Imagine congressional staffers rewriting targeting rules.
Imagine the Energy and Commerce Committee debating whether the SEC's dominance violates antitrust law. At that point, I would rather watch an entire season of women's basketball.
If a state government wants to pass laws regulating contracts at its own universities, that is a different conversation. States fund those schools. Voters can hold those lawmakers accountable. There is a chain of responsibility.
But Washington is accountable to no one. No scoreboard. No boosters. No fan base. No results.
The Apostle Paul wrote that "each of us must give an account to God" (Romans 14:12). Accountability produces moral order.
Congress rarely practices accountability, and that is why it should never be trusted to run a sport that lives and dies on its integrity.
Lane Kiffin is accountable to his former school and its fanbase. The SEC is responsible to its viewers and partners. The NCAA, despite its flaws, remains accountable to a marketplace that demands compelling competition.
Congress is accountable to… a fundraising calendar.
Chip Roy is correct to say there is a moral problem in college football. Coaches should not demand loyalty that they refuse to demonstrate. Fans deserve a say in preserving the soul of the game.
But people like Chip are wrong to think that Washington, which is the same bureaucracy that has failed our schools, strangled innovation, and buried Americans in debt, is the answer to fixing sports.
College football belongs to us: the people who fill the stands, pay the cable bills, and scream at the television when the refs miss a targeting call.
We know it has problems. Congress is not the solution. Hands off our football, Chip.
